Any CCCS Advisors can answer an urgent quick question??

Squiggly_Diddly

Hiya,

Am just in the process of helping my mum (62) sort out her finances - she lives on £121 a week and I've just discovered she's £10k in debt & essentially goes without food/gas/electric to pay a loan & 2 credit cards (£250 pm).

I've given her a budget sheet to do, we had a quick go over the weekend and I estimate we can end up with somewhere between £50-£80 to pay to a DMP. Would that be too low? She would rather do that & pay something, than not at all & go bankrupt.

If so then I can advise her not to pay this month's payments coming up, and use the money to credit her meters, and get some food in. I'm quite happy to deal with all the paperwork for her too, ie sending letters with token amounts initially.

Just need to know what to do on an "immediate" basis really...

Thank you so much for any help you can offer.

CCCS_Sarah

Hi Squiggly,

There is no set amount for a dmp depends really on if this would be ‘best advice’. It’s hard to give detailed advice via the forum but CCCS do have a free online debt advice facility called Debt Remedy where you can put together a financial statement and be provided with the best way forward for your mum to deal with her situation or you could call our helpline (0800 138 1111) for a appointment and speak to a counsellor.

In the meantime make sure that she keeps all her priorities up to date and if there is not enough money to make full payments just make a goodwill gesture token payments until we can put a long term solution in place. If she has any debts with her bank try and change this over to a bank where she has no debts asap and any income needs to be paid into the new account.

Anything else give me a shout

Sarah

stapeley

hi , food and electric bills etc should always be sorted out first ! What is the debts for and to who ? If they are in the hands of a DCA I would CCA and notice of assignment them . At the least it puts debt in dispute and may give you a bit of time to sort things out .

Squiggly_Diddly

Thank you Sarah,

yes, said to her she needs to go & open a new bank account as her loan & 1 CC are both with her bank. She is going to phone CCCS in next couple of days once she has completed the budget I've given her too (& do the debt remedy online before that). It's just that I knew the max available monthly would be about £80 & didn't know if that was too low. Otherwise will be bankruptcy as she has nothing else to lose (council tenant, retired, etc).

She was talking about getting a consolidation loan...!!! I said not.....
But I said to her not to try & make any more payments & go without; they can just have token ones for this month. But I think she would feel less bad paying them something - even if it takes a lot longer.

Anyway, thank you in the meantime for your help Much appreciated.

Squiggly_Diddly

Hi Stapeley,

it's a loan & 1 CC with her bank, and a barclaycard. Up till now she has somehow (and I really don't know how) kept up paying a total of £250 a month - and her total income is £538. She has gone without food/gas/electric, etc to do so. I told her (in the nicest possible way) she was daft!!!

Hence they are not in arrears as yet, which is why I'm not quite sure how we should start to tackle things, but she cannot carry on like that either. She has been using the credit cards to pay essential living expenses for a while....

CCCS_Sarah

Squiggly_Diddly wrote: »

Thank you Sarah,

It's just that I knew the max available monthly would be about £80 & didn't know if that was too low. Otherwise will be bankruptcy as she has nothing else to lose (council tenant, retired, etc).

All the possible options will be discussed with her and help and support will be given whatever option your mum chooses.

Let me know how she gets on and if you have anyother questions, give me a shout

Sarah